Most powerful federation?

I assume the powerful skating feds are in no particular order, Russian Fed, Japanese Fed, Canadian Fed, USFSA, and now China. Who am I missing, and can someone rank the feds in terms of dollars spent last year, and who seems to weild the most power in judging. I am not sure if it was sour grapes but some in the thread on Skate Canada said the results show how corrupt they are. There are some spoilers here, so if you have somehow not looked at the winners and are Tivoing the comp to watch next week, then please stop reading here.

Some used the results of Ladies to say the golden lady was outskated by the silver lady. I agreed on that, though it seemed close to me Also The mens. The controversy included booing in the Arena when Canadian guy who won silver was outskated technically by far by the bronze medalist who was very impressive. I am guessing it was the PCS scores and positive GOEs and TES scores but have read no protocols. At least he did not win over the guy who should have won gold, and did. I did not see all the FD's in ID but I felt the Italian team deserved gold, not the Canadian team. This was rep judging it seems, and home turf. The Oly golden dancers are not always the best team but they win. ID judging tho is beyond me, and I do not think they are obviously better than the two top American teams, the other Canadian team (weaver /poje are on par with them at their best). In SC, I wish the Italians had won. I think they were better. I am not sure what scoring was in the OD but the messed up lift from Voir was very bad and really affected the whole program and should have been marked harder down. But i know the least about ID. I wondered if Zueva has an advantage with judges over Igor at this point. I usually am ok with Voir winning, but I liked the Italians a lot, would have liked to see them win gold. Canada obviously has more clout than Italy. Tho with Carolina as WC they must be getting more respect.

Without getting political about real politics, can someone in the know who reads about federations and their standing in the ISU rank them? I don't know if corrupt is the right word, but a couple, possible 3 judging decisons surprised me, where of course, Canada was the winner. Are these federations really as corrupt as some posters who fiollow this all the time say?

And what results can you back up what you opine with? I see what I see and other than what I read here or on FSU, and one has to wade packed posts, I do not know what to think. IJS CoP was meant to stop all the cheating, and I see a big change (or did) in ice dance. I could not watch it in the 90's. ID and Pairs seemed reserved for Russian teams for so long, it could get frustrating. So I am happy with the CoP IJS change in Ice dance, and pairs is no longer owned by Russia since SLC debacle. But has the game remained the same with the powers having now shifted to Asia?

I think we can discuss this with knowing that all peoples are good, equal and loving, while governing bodies, even in sport, sometimes misuse power...your thoughts?

ETA I have constant problems with the software here repeating several words of my sentence...it is not new and happens on both laptops I iown, so maybe I should ask what the issue is, do others have this repeating part of a sentence problem? IO catch it when i re-read the post as I have a hard time when the area is very small to review for really bad mistakes. I am not sure where to adress this, ie. which forum moderator? It is really annoying and I should have addressed it long ago rather than just fixing it if I see it. I can't be only one (I hope) with this tech. issue. Thankyou mods! Always something to keep you busy, eh? Sorry.

The best place to ask technical question about the board, like about the repeating words in Edit mode, is in the Feedback forum. It is near the bottom of the forum list, after all the Competition forums. I've started a thread for you there, on your repeating words problem, because I only know a How To Cope answer. I hope someone that knows the whole answer will post:

I think the Russian federation is very powerful too. Remember, in the last couple years they've scored two major coups:

1) Getting 2011 Worlds in Moscow after the tsunami
2) Getting Plushenko reinstated to eligible status (would that have happened for any other skater, from any other country?)

The U.S. federation, meanwhile, seems quite weak, especially considering the general strength of our program. I'm guessing this is attributable to the sport's current lack of popularity in the U.S. Despite this, though, I feel like we should have more pull.

For decades everyone in international skating made fun of how badly the uSFSA played the political game. Almost as if they didn't want to.

However, back in the day, as much as half of the ISU's money came from the United States. Politics aside, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Now Japan is in that role.

Someone mentioned on another thread that the Canadian Federation hoped to reap big benefits when David Dore became the ISU's top honcho for figure skating. Dore turned out not to be as parochial as expected.

I think the Russian federation is very powerful too. Remember, in the last couple years they've scored two major coups:

1) Getting 2011 Worlds in Moscow after the tsunami
2) Getting Plushenko reinstated to eligible status (would that have happened for any other skater, from any other country?)

Probably any skater would since the ban was not for a lifetime and you have one opportunity to ask for unban.

Who else offered to do Worlds that year that had the way to do it in a month? I remember France or Canada didnt want to give their 2012/2013 Worlds for 2011.But I remember some other countries offering, I just dont remember which.

b) The key designer of COP was Canadian, though the idea was kicking around after the wierdness of Euros 1997.

c) Skate Canada tends to be present at a lot of events to boost their skaters with the judges (this has been noted by both those "on the other side" and those who's bias is perhaps less vehement)

I thought that's good business practice. Make sure you are involved with making and understanding the rules (COP) and market your products .... skaters, coaches, training facilities and choreographers. I think the Canadian federation has been successful in doing that. Not sure if they are the most powerful federation (don't have enough money for that) but I guess they may be the most influential. 2010 OGM winners all have Canadian connections - Pair (Lori Nichol) Ice Dance (V/M) Men (Lori Nichol) Ladies (Brian Orser & David Wilson).

To me USFSA is the strongest. They even got Evan a gold medal ahead of my beloved Plushy. :( In all seriousness, the USFSA is able to get the skaters the placements they deserve, but that shows strength because a lot of skaters from weaker countries aren't able to. I think Lipinski (1997), Bobek (1995), Hughes (2001&2002), Cohen (forever), Kwan (1996), and Meissner (2006) all benefitted by getting favorable placements in marginal cases.

I think Japan is probably second. Shizuka I always felt never got the respect she deserved until late in her career, and to me she had the best skating ability among her peers. They also haven't been able to do much to help their men achieve success.

A number of countries offered to have the Worlds: Canada, Russia, the USA, Croatia, Finland and Austria. It was clear that Russia had the best bid - Canada and the USA were mere placefillers (both submitted their names mainly to ensure that there was a chance competition took place. Russia deservingly got Worlds. And given how successful the event was - attendance was strong, the rink was good (compared to say Nice this past year), no one feels that was the wrong decision. If it was a political decision, it was a political decision of the best kind, where everyone compromises and the best event possible under the circumstances was held. Canada and the USA tend to get the event every five-seven years, so six years between Moscow 05 and 11 makes sense to me.

Plushenko's case is trickier. As seniorita states, it WASN'T a lifetime ban. He waited the appropriate period of time, got the reinstatement, and continued on. You can make the argument that the fact he was allowed to compete at Euros despite not technically being eligible is a case of politicking, but bluntly speaking, it was a stupidly written rule anyway. The ISU certainly didn't break the spirit of the rule by allowing him to compete.